With his first head coaching job, he has transformed the Miami Dolphins into an offensive juggernaut and emerging
contenders, a long-awaited top job founded on years of experience behind the scenes in some of the league’s most
potent schemes.
Mastering the Xs and Os of football was one thing, imparting that knowledge on an entire roster of players was
another. So far, so good for a man whose team just put up 70 points and over 700 yards of offense against the Denver
Broncos to stay unbeaten so far this season.
“I believe that there are many commonalities in the human experience,” McDaniel told Sky Sports. “And I believe
that being able to go on the NFL trip, from a coaching staff standpoint, allowed you to see a lot of things firsthand
and then observe a lot of them. You can see how interwoven it is.
“
What I was extremely fortunate to have experienced was becoming a coach at the NFL level at such a young age; I was 22 and 23 years old for my first two positions.
“You realize early on that ‘hey, I don’t look the part’. So I better be able to assist a player. You turn the page and
realize that if you can help them, it doesn’t matter how it looks. That was huge for me.
Prior to joining the Dolphins, McDaniel spent five years with Kyle Shanahan’s San Francisco 49ers, where he played
an important role in one of the NFL’s most inventive rushing offenses. Earlier in his career, he worked as a quality
control coach for Mike Shanahan, where the job description typically included grueling first-in-last-out hours of
studying film, drawing up play designs, logging statistics, and being prepared to relay all of the above to their staff on
demand. They are the ultimate “fly on the wall,” and their work is critical to the smooth operation of a complete team.
